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You know that major fans of the Grateful Dead used to follow the band from town to town, going to every Dead show they could? They are called "Deadheads" and they are proud of that apellation. Tragically Hip fans are "Hipheads", there are "Phishheads" (eat them up, yum!), Dick Dale devotees are dubbed "Dickheads" (lousy label : ( ) and Uriah Heep fans are denoted as "Heepheads".

the band's singer and organist Paul Revere (real name, originally "Paul Revere Dick") passed away over the weekend. The band was notorious for wearing American Revolutionary Era costumes at their performances. Paul Revere died at the unique and ironic age of 76! That's right, as in 1776 = year of Declaration of Independence. Geddit?

My mom told me when I was a teenager she saw this band perform on a Dick Clark type show like Shindig or Hullabaloo. They'd play while wearing American Revolution period getup. One of the Raiders' tri-corn hat fell off his head and instead of picking it off the floor he just kept on playing and he danced around his hat! That's true devotion to your art, folks!

Sylvain Sylvain is a veteran of the protopunk band New York Dolls. Glen Matlock is from the Sex Pistols. These 2 performers played their old bands' chestnuts and their solo music in their own solo acoustic guitar sets. For the encore they played more Dolls, Pistols, solo and glam rock hits together. They played this tour in small clubs and cafes. It was billed as "Punk Goes Acoustic" and the tour was billed as the "Sex Doll" Tour 2014. Get the drift?

THIS IS NO JOKE, THIS IS A TRUE STORY, IRONY AND ALL! In California, near a home owned by Sir Paul McCartney where his Beatle buddy George Harrison was allowed to stay at so he could die in peace away from the media and ultra-Beatlemaniacs. After he died a memorial tree was planted in George's honor and a plague corremmerrating him was set underneath. This memorial tree was also a reminder that George loved to do landscape gardening as a hobby. There's going to be a new tree planting ceremony soon because the current tree, which was planted in 2001 is dead due to an attack by * drumroll, please! * - # cymbals clash! # - BEETLES! Ain't that a pity?! My Sweet Lord! ; )

"The Safety Dance" was a huge global synth-dance hit, but the extended version was played more often on the radio. Soon afterward a touring Chippendales revue would do squat thrusts and other exercises with their pants off while a performer would karaoke or lip-sync to the song. They were "Men Without Pants". They would commence stripping down.

In the early 70s Jeff Hyman was in the NYC glam/protopunk band SNIPER. He was the singer and his stage name was "Jeff Starship". Not "Jefferson Starship" but just using his real first name. He left the band in early 1974 and became "Joey Ramone" of the legendary first punk rock band, the RAMONES.

One of the many pictures in the album booklet shows bassist Adam Clayton standing nude. His privates are covered up by an "X" or a shamrock (U2 is an Irish band). Get 2 copies of the classic "Achtung Baby" album and you may see the difference.

This jumpy ska number starts off with someone saying, "I Am Powdered Milk Man!" in an electronically filtered voice in a lampoon of Ozzy Osbourne's intro in "Iron Man" by the heavy metal band Black Sabbath.

The title of that 1991 album is a reference to the Montrose (this band featured Sammy Hagar) song "Bad Motor Scooter". The "motor finger" is a reference to speedy guitar playing, like in punk rock. Look at the album title - you thought this might've been a veiled referral to the street phrase "BAD MF", didn't ya? Guess again ; )

It's the band's 4th album, there were 4 members in the lineup, the first hit "Urgent" peaked at #4, and along with "Waiting For a Girl Like You", "Juke Box Hero" and "Break It Up" - count them, 4 Top 40 hits! - a fifth hit single from the 4 album, "Luanne" also charted in the lower reaches of the Hot 100.

The first time I saw the band it was at the Lacuna Seca Raceway near Monterey and Salinas. They were on the "Cali-FORE" Tour of May-June 1987 to promote the "FORE!" album that was released the year before. This mini-tour consisted of FOUR/FORE shows in CaliFOREnia - Petaluma, Angels Camp, Lacuna Seca, and Marin County (Bay Area).

FORE! is a term used in the SPORT of golf, and this 1986 album is the band's FOURTH.

CaliFOREnia Rocker

"Saturday Night Fever, Born to Run albums," Sesame Street / Muppets

Ever seen the album "Sesame Street Fever"? Muppets are used to lampoon the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack. Ernie, Bert and the Cookie Monster represent the Bee Gees and Grover takes the place of John Travolta. The cover art of "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band also has been parodied with the Muppet touch. The original album features Bruce with his Fender guitar leaning on Clarece Clemens who's wearing a wide-brimmed hat and playing his saxophone. Sesame Street released the album "Born to Add". On the cover art Bruce is replaced by Bert and the Cookie Monster fills in for Clarence. This album is credited to "Bruce Stringbean and the S. Street Band".

In 1985 Phil Collins guested on MIAMI VICE as Phil the Shill. He came to the USA to avoid UK taxes and swindle some more. At episode's end he fled with a suitcase full of money and later appeared on cable TV as televangalist Father Phil. He wore a horribly bad toupee to hide his real life baldness on top. It looked unbelievably ridiculous. Fast forward to 1992. The band Genesis puts out a funny/accurate lampoon of TV preachers and their ripoff practices in the video for the above named song. All 3 members of Genesis are ministry thieves in the music video ("Call now! Pray later! Dial 1-800-GENE-SIS!") and even though Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks have full heads of hair they are wearing lousy toupees just like Phil is. This is probably a comic element.

When I saw John "Hoosier" Mellencamp live at the Palace Theater last year at the end of the main set (as in before the encores) an assistant placed a bluish-purple cape-cloak on John's shoulders a la James Brown. Note that in his video for the 1981 hit "Ain't Even Done With the Night" he also wears a cape and keeps "escaping" from it so he could grab the mic stand and sing another verse, also in emulation of Soul Brother Number One.